If you would like to donate funds for clinical research into Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), please send your donations to the Langford Trust of Bristol Unviersity.
The Trust was founded in 1990, following recognition of the need to improve facilities at the Bristol University’s Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, and is currently conducting research into FIP.
There are a number of ways you can donate, include via Charity Choice.
There was a cat breeder who walked into Boots and bought up their entire stock of bedding for baby cots. When asked by the till assistant if it was for a baby, he replied, twinkling, “yes, all eight of them” or words to that effect!
I myself prefer to use ordinary towels.
Some breeders don’t use towels because they say that the kittens’ claws get caught in the loop of the towels. I have never yet encountered that problem. Some breeders prefer to use old bedsheets or torn up duvets.
The photo above shows the pre-kitten laundry day when I made sure that all my kitten towels were clean and ready.
I line the kitten box with towels which I change daily. I go through about two bath-size towels every day. As you can imagine, I go through quite a few towels a week. In previous years, I bought my towels from ASDA, from their budget range. But it was still expensive. This year the gym I go to donated some of their old towels, free of charge – I was so chuffed.
I prefer white towels because if there is any staining, a soak in Milton Disinfectant before popping it in the wash, gets it out. If the towels were coloured, they could not be bleached. The alternative is to use dark coloured towels, which of course won’t show the stains. But the advantage in white towels is that you can spot exactly what is going on in the world of kitten bowels!
Underneath the towels is a Pampers Bed Mat. These are a mattress protector which will absorb pee without allowing it to soak through to the surface beneath. I prefer them to Pampers Changing Mats because they’re larger, measuring 90cm x 80cm. As a final precaution against cat claws, underneath the Bed Mat are several sheets of newspaper.
Here is a photo of the kittens, just over a day old. They are in a grouping called a “huddle” which helps them to conserve heat.
This is the second litter of seven kittens that Ananda has had. The first time she had seven kittens, I had to top up one of the kittens with special kitten replacement milk because it wasn’t getting enough milk. Or at least I thought it wasn’t.
A mother cat has eight teats, two of which are located next to her front legs, and which are smaller. So any kitten getting one of the front teats may be getting less milk.
If you have a small kitten that isn’t as robust or good at fighting for its place at the milk bar than chances are that kitten will not gain as much weight proportionally as its siblings.
And believe me, its like a wildlife documentary when it comes to seeing who can get the best teat. I have seen two kittens fight over a teat, scrabbling away with their little paws, shoving the other’s head away. The struggle is made all the more intense by the silence in which the fighting is conducted.
Opinion is divided amongst breeders as to whether topping-up is a good thing or not. On the one hand, it allows the smallest not to fall behind. On the other hand, some believe in letting nature take its course and letting the kittens fight it out amongst themselves. Others feel that it is better to “feed the mother cat” who will then hopefully be able to produce enough milk to feed the kittens.
This time round I’ve decided to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. And touch wood, there have been some monumental kitten squabbles, but so far they seem to have found their place in the teat. Sometimes there has been more than one sitting at the table, with the kittens who missed out on the best teats getting a second chance when other kittens are satiated.
Sometimes I’ve had to smile at Ananda’s method of dealing with kittens who won’t stop fighting over who has which teat. What she does is change her position, or even get up so that all the kittens tumble off their teats. She then lies down again, so that the kittens start on a level playing field. As one of my friends said, it’s like pressing the restart button on the PC.
Here is a photo of that rare moment – all the seven kittens with a teat! A peaceful moment. Long may it last!
There are more photos on the Catswhiskers flickr album.
Seven Catswhiskers Maine Coon kittens, born on Friday 25 July.
Their mother: Mullycoonz Eowyn (black smoke tortie) (“Ananda”)
Their father: Ch. Noracoon Vespasian (red silver and white – owned by Fiona Nicholls of Koonikki Maine Coons). Vespa was also the stud for the 2008 litter.
Colours to be confirmed, but they look like 3 mackrel tabbies, 1 tortie tabby, 1 red tabby and white, 1 red silver tabby and 1 red silver shaded tabby.
The photos above shows Ananda on the bed which is where she finally decided she wanted to have her kittens. However, because the bed is so much more comfortable than the kitten box, even after the kittens were placed into their box, Ananda kept jumping onto the bed and going “ehh … ehh … ehh” as if expecting the kittens to be there. Delightful as it would be to have kittens on the bed, I decided that it would be safer if they were in their box. Imagine if they fell off the bed! Or if I rolled onto them! And imagine what would happen if these bed-bred kittens went to their new homes and turned their noses up at anything but their owner’s beds!
There are more photos on the Catswhiskers flickr album.
The kittens have arrived! All seven of them!
To say that I’m relieved is an understatement. In my post on Wednesday it looked as though Ananda was going to kitten on Thursday. That would have been 65 days after mating, and her usual gestation period. So even though she was displaying all the signs of impending motherhood, nothing happened on Thursday, and I was beginning to get anxious.
I read and re-read my notes on the delivery process – bad move. They were full of information on what could go wrong. But she was eating and drinking, and even going for ambles in the garden. There was no sign of distress or undue straining. So I decided to wait just one more day before calling the vet.
In previous years she’s always kittened in the early hours of the morning. So when I woke up just before 6am this morning (Friday), I thought that this was another day of waiting, that it was past her usual time for kittening.
She was lying on the bed next to me and turned over so I could rub her belly. Apparently she finds that soothing. A couple of days ago, I could feel bumps in her belly when I stroked it. Nothing like that this morning, just firm, smooth belly and muscle. I even fell asleep half-way through, and when I woke up, she gave me a few grunts as is to tell me off.
Imagine my surprise when she started straining, stretching her hind legs back, and panting. I realised that she was going into the second stage of delivery.
She jumped off the bed, into the kittening box, then out of the box and onto the bed, finally deciding that the bed was where she wanted to be. Fortunately I’d placed Pampers nappy-changing sheets and towels on the bed for such an eventuality.
To cut a long story short, the first kitten arrived at approx. 6.30am. Then three more were born until 7.10am. She was a fantastic mother, and managed to clean all the kittens. Four kittens I thought – that’s a nice number. However, her belly still felt a bit bumpy when I palpated it. So I decided to wait.
In the meantime I fed her pipettes of water to help replace the water lost from bleeding. and a liquid pick-me-up called Animal Magic. This latter contains royal jelly, honey and ginseng. I felt that the sugar would give her some energy.
I also re-read my homeopathic notes and decided to give her a dose of Arnica 200C. Helios’ guide says of Arnica:
“Encourages healing; controls bleeding … . Reduces exhaustion, gives “second wind”, particularly during long, slow, painful labours, where tiredness makes contractions weak/ineffectual. … Give routinely after birth to speed recovery.”
So was it a coincidence when barely 5 minutes after I’d given her Arnica Kitten no. 5 popped out? Followed by Kittens no. 6 and 7 within the next 20 minutes?
I don’t know … was it the Arnica? The only other thing I have to add is that Ananda has made a remarkably quick recovery this time round, even though she’s had seven kittens. She’s not been as tired as on previous occasions.
Kittens and mother are, at this time of writing, still doing well.
Here is Ananda, my Maine Coon queen, waiting for the arrival of the stork sometime later tonight or tomorrow. Knowing what cats are like, the kittens will most likely arrive sometime in the wee hours of the morning.
Here is a close-up of Ananda’s belly, to show how, 24 hours before delivery, a queen’s nipples get swollen and engorged with milk in preparation for the kittens. Ananda has been restless today, occasionally panting, and very clingy.
The kitten box is ready with the bedding and the rest of the pregnancy kit. I’ve re-read my kittening notes, I know it’s not the first time, but each time has been different so I’m feeling anxious. All I can do is wait … .
This is round about Day 30.
As you can see the catnip seeds I planted in the Jiffy Pot have grown and I have placed them in a larger pot. I’m not sure why the seedlings have gone floppy. Maybe because they’re grown indoors? Here they are soaking up some outdoor sunshine.
Maya the Bengal caught a whiff of the seedlings and started sniffing round. I had to put the catnip on top of a wheelie bin for safety.
Here’s my practical nod to the credit crunch: grow-your-own catnip.
I spend a fortune every year on searching out the finest and most potent catnip in the market. So I decided to see if growing catnip would save a few pennies.
This kit comes from Canada, and can be bought from purrsinourheart, a pet charity. It consists of a packet of seeds, and more importantly, a little compressed peat pot, so you don’t have to muck about with bags of compost. All you have to do is rehydrate the peat pot by soaking it in water, then removing a little peat, sowing the seeds, and covering them up with the peat. Then place in a sunny spot and wait, for about 10 days.
For those cats who can’t wait, the kit comes with a little packet of catnip, for instant gratification.
This is not my first attempt at growing my own catnip. Many years back I bought a catnip plant which I transplanted into a flower bed. It was quite bushy and perky. A few days later, all that was left was a few battered stalks and some mushy leaves. I suspected slugs, but later caught Teddy sitting on the same spot the plant was on, an expression of bliss on his face. Yes, the plant had suffered death by squashing.
The following year I tried to grow catnip from seed. It worked until the slugs found the baby seedlings in the pot and all that was left was a few spindly stalks.
This year I’m growing from seed, but starting from indoors. Once the seedlings have reached a reasonable size I shall transplant into pots and grow them on until they are young plants. I’m still working on how to protect the growing plant from premature death by cats. As for the slugs, I’ve spent a fortune on nematodes to annihilate them.
Continuing the series on my visit to the Natural and Organic Products Show on 6 April 2009.
FOOD PRODUCTS
1. Maharishi Honey. It’s bizarre, but following last year’s show I wrote about this brand of honey and somehow I found myself at this stand again this year, after the exhibition had closed.
Maharishi honey is organic and produced according to the ayurvedic principles of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. (Those who are Beatles fans will have had their bells rung as, for a short time, the Beatles embraced the philosophy of this yogic practitioner.)
I’m no stranger to biodynamic farming which encourages the use of biological sprays and planting according to planetary cycles to enhance crop vibrancy.
However, Maharishi honey seems to go one step further in influencing the wellbeing and quality of honey produced by playing mantras to the bees as they forage and when the honey is harvested. Furthermore, the Institute believe that honeys harvested at different times of the year have different tastes and a positive effect on different parts of the body.
It all seems very airy-fairy, but I picked up some leaflets from the stand which included scientific research into the efficacy of Maharishi honey.
One study (conducted by the Food Research Laboratory in Japan) compared the antibacterial activity in Maharishi Honey with Manuka Honey (UMF 30).
(Now, the little I know about Manuka Honey is that the higher the UMF rating, the stronger and more reliable the properties of the honey. So UMF 30 is pretty high up the scale. Because of its potency, Manuka Honey has been used in the treatment of digestive disorders and burns.)
Interestingly, the test show that after one hour and even after three hours, Maharishi Honey showed considerably greater anti-bacterial than Manuka Honey.
I’d always meant to try the honey, and this year, after humming and haaing over which type to buy, the assistant on the stand took pity on me and quite out-of-the-blue, presented me with a small sample of their Madhu Taste 8 (enhances the sense of Taste and sense of Sight). She told me that everyone they’d given samples to usually ended up purchasing more later on.
Who knows? Perhaps by writing it up in my post last year, I’d somehow attracted it into my life.
2. Gaia’s Organic Kombucha. I used to make Kombucha. It’s a kind of fermented tea drink, which has health-benefits. The fermentation is carried out by a special type of rubbery fungus called a scobie. I stopped making Kombucha when the fungi multipled and threatened to take over the house, so I’m always on the lookout for commercially-produced Kombucha which would give me the convenience of a Kombucha drink without the hassle of having to make it.
Most commercial Kombucha suffers from one problem: pasteurisation. This destroys most of the living enzymes, probiotics and amino acids in Kombucha. Which means that most shop-bought Kombucha is essentially a dead substance and no better than a cordial.
Until today I thought the only brand of “live” unpasteurised Kombucha was made by Lewtress. So it’s great that Gaia’s Organic Kombucha also offers live, unpasteurised Kombucha. While Lewtress’ Kombucha are fermented with herbs, Gaia’s are infused with fruity flavours which may be a more gentle introduction for newcomers to Kombucha: Original Green Tea, Green Tea and Peach and Green Tea and Blackcurrant.
The creator of Gaia’s Kombucha is Gary Leigh and he represented everything I enjoy about the Show – the passion to create a product that will help people, and the enthusiasm to share his knowledge and expertise about the product. He showed me how fresh and “alive” his Kombucha was – in one of the bottles, a little Kombucha culture floated, with the potential to become a fully-functioning Kombucha fungus. His Kombucha does not need to be refrigerated, although refrigeration will slow the fermentation process down. He claimed that an unopened bottle would stay potent for up to 10 years.
I tasted some Gaia’s Kombucha – it had that Kombucha kick to it: slightly fizzy, tart with a warming effect. My favourite was the Original Green Tea flavour because I’m a purist when it comes to Kombucha tastes. Definitely a must-try for Kombucha addicts.
3. Argital green clay. I’d come across bentonite clay during a detox – taken internally it is supposed to absorb toxins. However, Argital green clay is extracted from a pit near the seas of Sicily. It is suppsoed to be more potent than other types of clay because of its marine origin which is rich in mineral salts and other elements.
I took a pinch of the clay between my fingers – it felt like talcum powder. The person I talked to at the stand told me that he mixed a teaspoon of the powder in a glass of water every morning, let the clay settle and drank the remaining solution. It was, he said, the secret to his good health because the liquid contained all the minerals that the body required. It was also supposed to be good for pets who would recognise that their water now contained all the right elements. Needless to say, I had to have some, but unfortunately he only had a few packets available, so I had to make do with a few tablespoons in a plastic cup, sealed with a wodge of kitchen towel!
4. Devon Cottage Organic Fudge. All I can say is, it’s delicious. It is the only organic AND Fairtrade fudge available on the market. Added to that, unlike many other fudges it is made with butter, not with the cheaper palm oil. (I’m also a bit wary of palm oil which may be highly-processed).
I spoke with the owner, Richard Dennison who described how he still makes the fudge in small quantities, in a cottage-type enterprise. The fudge is still hand-stirred by himself, so it truly deserves the label “home made”.
He sources all his organic ingredients from the UK (which can only be good for our farmers). The exception is the milk powder (which is used to produce condensed milk used in the fudge recipe) because apparently despite the plight of the British milk industry, there is no one in this country who has capitalised on excess milk stocks to manufacture an organic milk powder!
Continuing the series on my visit to the Natural & Organic Products Show 2009.
PET-RELATED PRODUCTS – FLOWER ESSENCES
(As you may be aware, flower essences are remedies which act on the emotional state of a person or animal. They are made by infusing the flower in water in the presence of sunlight to capture the vibrational quality of the flower. The belief is that each unique flower vibration is capable of healing different negative emotional states.)
It’s not often I come across a range of flower essences specifically-created for pets. Most holistic practitioners use traditional Bach flower remedies for pets. I’ve used Australian Bush Flower Essences. Bioforce have a small number of pet-specific remedies. And in the US, Green Hope Farm have an Animal Wellness Collection.
At the show, I came across Tortue Rouge, a company specialising in organic essential oils, that has created a pet-specific range of flower essences (more to follow).
The company is based in the South of France, in the beautiful Languedocienne mountains. All their essential oils are grown by themselves in their grounds.
What I found impressive was the four varieties of high-altitude lavender essential oil that they were able to offer me: lavender grown at 800 metres, 1200 metres, 1600 metres and 1800 metres.
(What’s the big deal about high-altitude lavender, I hear you ask. Well, apparently, high-altitude lavender has a higher ester content – esters are the chemical components that give the oil its relaxing, calming effects as well as floral scent. Therefore the higher the ester content, the finer the scent and more therapeutic the oil. )
I couldn’t smell the difference between the 1200m and the 1600m, but the difference between the 800m and the 1800m was discernible – the latter had a creamier, almost honeyed fragrance.
Anyway, I digress. The founder of the company, Petre (pronounced “Peter”) Sefton has always loved animals and decided to create a range of flower essences for pets. She and I had a very interesting discussion about whether or not the intent and “purity” of the person making the flower remedy had any influence on the efficacy of the remedy, and whether commercial methods of production eroded quality.
I spoke with Tracy Savage, one of the assistants at the stand and she gave a glowing testimonial on their effectiveness. She is normally a sceptic about flower essences, however, she gave some to a friend who had a rescue cat who, four years after the rescue, was timid and nervy. Apparently, three days after the remedy, the cat became more confident and sociable.
I realise that what I’ve just narrated is anecdotal, so I’m looking forward to trying these essences and reporting on the results. However, it is worth noting that a number of holistic vets including Richard Allport are using these remedies.
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